<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Illyria Aquarium- Baby Pancake by Broken_Clover</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24315088">Illyria Aquarium- Baby Pancake</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Broken_Clover/pseuds/Broken_Clover'>Broken_Clover</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Illyria Aquarium [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Guilty Gear</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Aquariums, Baby Venom, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Fluff, Gen, Illyria Aquarium AU</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 04:08:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,488</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24315088</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Broken_Clover/pseuds/Broken_Clover</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Illyria Aquarium takes in a very rare stingray-type Mer</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Illyria Aquarium [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1755355</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Illyria Aquarium- Baby Pancake</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Axl stumbled into work 45 minutes late. In his own clipped words, stumbling out in between apologetic bows at his bosses, the traffic had been killer, and he hadn’t been able to get out of the traffic jam soon enough to make it on time. It wasn’t wholly untrue, though the fact that half of that 45 minutes was spent tearing around the house looking for pants and trying to look somewhat presentable after oversleeping wasn’t something he needed to admit.</p>
<p>The following ten minutes were solely devoted to I-no chewing him out. He was long used to having to stand there and listen to the woman shout at him for being irresponsible and unprofessional, shoving in more ‘sorry’-s and ‘It won’t happen again’-s whenever she stopped for breath. It was pretty much all the same as usual, though even after it, ‘we would have fired you months ago if you weren’t the only half-competent person who showed up on our doorstep’ still sounded as much a compliment as it did an insult.</p>
<p>“Just stop wasting time and go do your job already,” said I-no, who both lacked a sense of irony and didn’t seem to realize that she had been keeping him away from his job while she yelled at him. Sheesh, maybe it’d been enough times that she did consider it part of his job.</p>
<p>At least the mer didn’t seem to mind too much. If I-no was really so worried, she could have gotten her lazy self to go out and feed them, but with how happy everyone was to see him, they clearly had been waiting for their food until he’d gotten there.</p>
<p>“Sorry, guys. Didn’t mean to be so late.” He offered an apologetic wave through the grates. “Everyone ready for brunch?”</p>
<p>Sol seemed very displeased by the delay, but Axl managed to toss in a whole hunk of raw, bloody meat for him to tear into before he could crawl out and dig his sharp teeth into something else. Ky, as usual, was far more cordial, politely taking the whole fish he was offered and swimming back down to eat.</p>
<p>Routine and rhythm were easy enough to fall into. Aside from Baiken almost managing to snap at his ankle and May’s apparently insistence on playing fetch with her squid, things were remarkably normal. No injuries to report, no more and no less the amount of mer that had been there when he’d gone home the night before.</p>
<p>One task to tick off the list. Axl reached for his radio and, after a moment of thought, decided to call Raven, instead. “Oi, feeding’s done. Anything you need me for before I vacuum the carpet inside?”</p>
<p>“Hmm?” Based on the pitch and volume, Raven hadn’t even realized he’d left his radio in his office. Again. Sheesh, and I-no said he was scatterbrained. “Ah! Axl. I was just looking for you, actually. Would you mind pleasuring me with a visit? I’ve got something interesting to show you.”</p>
<p>Knowing Raven, that was either a very good thing, or a very very terrible one. Still, he was already starting down the stairs. “Yeah, where are ya? Need me to swing by your office?”</p>
<p>“I’m in the medical laboratory right now.”</p>
<p>Axl paused between steps. “The heck are you doing in the med lab? I just got finished feeding all the guys, you can’t tell me someone got hurt-”</p>
<p>Raven’s voice tutted softly. “Relax.”</p>
<p>The temp realized that he’d started sprinting down the stairs. He slowed himself down and reached the bottom. “Okay, so what is it?”</p>
<p>“Surprised I-no didn’t tell you already. We had a new mer subject sent to our facility this morning.”</p>
<p>The immediately got him running again, though this time out of excitement. “Really? That’s amazing! Tell me about ‘im!”</p>
<p>Axl could hear paper rustling through the radio as he ran back into the office building, heading for the stairwell. “He’s wild. Not too old. Apparently he got caught in a shrimp fishing net. He injured himself when they attempted to remove him from it, so they sent him to us.”</p>
<p>“Well, that explains what you’re doing up there, but c’mon! Tell me the important stuff! What kind is he?”</p>
<p>“Axl, I-”</p>
<p>A moment later, he walked right into the lab room. In his distraction, he’d gone on autopilot, and hadn’t realized he had already reached the third floor.</p>
<p>Raven pulled down his surgical mask, wearing an amused smile underneath. “Well, I suppose since you’re here, you can take a look yourself?”</p>
<p>Already having moved past the brief moment of awkward, Axl turned towards where Raven was pointing. It was one of the shallower observation pools, only a foot or so deep. The bottom was covered in sand, though most of the usual foliage had been removed. He would have assumed that it would have made spotting the new mer easier, but even as he approached, all he could find was sand and plants.</p>
<p>“Lil fella?” Axl got down on his knees by the tank and carefully swept a hand through to the plants in search. “Anyone home? Hellooo?”</p>
<p>“He’s rather shy, from what I’ve seen. Granted, I don’t find that something to be blamed for. He’s still very young.”</p>
<p>Axl half-expected that he’d get too close at some point, and the little mer would come darting out. Instead, there was nothing. Just him, raking through the scenery with nothing out of the ordinary to be found.</p>
<p>He sent Raven a look over his shoulder. “Are you pranking me?”</p>
<p>“Do be careful.” Raven replied. “He’s still got a stinger, don’t want to nick yourself.”</p>
<p>“…Stinger?” Axl removed his hand from the water and shook it out. He looked up at Raven with eager eyes. “You saying we actually got a stingray?”</p>
<p>The biologist gave him a slight nod. “The exact species has yet to be determined, but you’re correct.”</p>
<p>“Oi, why not tell me from the start, then?” He peered back in the water. It made sense that he wouldn’t have found anything in the plants. He’d been looking in all the wrong places.</p>
<p>Instead, he looked over the sandy bottom. Most of it formed into little dunes or flat plains, but in between them, he caught sight of an oddly-shaped lump near the edge of the tank. Axl reached out towards the lump of sand, trying his best to move slowly and not startle whatever was hiding there.</p>
<p>The tips of his fingers brushed away the dust, and he could feel something slick and slightly squishy underneath. It only lasted a moment, though, before all the sand was suddenly scattered, with a vague white-brown shape wriggling away into the camouflage of the trees. He reached out again, only to be met with more sand-kicking, which made it impossible to see much of anything in the tank.</p>
<p>He was interrupted by Raven’s soft laugh. When he turned back, the older man was shaking his head.</p>
<p>“Troublesome, isn’t it? I had a difficult time stitching his wound from how much he was moving. I haven’t even been able to feed him yet. I was hoping you could work a bit of that ‘magic’ of yours and see if it would make him calm down. You tend to have a miraculous sort of luck with the difficult ones.”</p>
<p>It took Axl a moment to process what was being said, and by the time it got through to him, Raven was halfway out the door.</p>
<p>“W- hold up!”</p>
<p>“Hmm?” Raven looked over his shoulder. “What?”</p>
<p>The temp stammered, trying to think of what to say. All he could manage was “what do I feed ‘im?”</p>
<p>“I left some shrimp on the table, stingray enjoy them. Anyway best of luck, Axl.”</p>
<p>The door slammed shut before he could make out anything else.</p>
<p>He wanted to be angry. He disliked being ditched, regardless of circumstance. Instead, he opted to walk over to the desk, locate the little plastic container of shrimp, and take it back to the pool.</p>
<p>“Hungry?” He asked, dangling a shrimp near the plants. “No tricks. You can just take it.”</p>
<p>Perched on his knees, he waited for the little tug to indicate the ray had gotten his teeth on it. If he felt it, he would have immediately let go and let the little guy go to town. But it never came.</p>
<p>“Lil’ fella?”</p>
<p>He figured that, if he couldn’t get him to socialize early, it wasn’t the end of the world but wasn’t ideal, but as long as the mer was eating, he’d at least not starve. The only thing that was coming to mind right now was to let the shrimp go and walk away. He couldn’t even catch a glimpse of the ray hiding in the plants. Some mer could be asocial, but if they had to leave the room every time they had to feed him, that was just dangerous. He was still small, and probably not entirely used to eating and pacing himself on solid foods. It was entirely possible that he could choke if left alone during meals.</p>
<p>Axl put the shrimp back in the box, and let out a low sigh. “We’re gonna have to do this the hard way, eh?”</p>
<p>I-no and Raven weren’t always the most enthusiastic regarding his more unusual methods, but they couldn’t deny that they worked. It was one of the few things that got the biologists to forgive his chronic lateness. If conventional techniques didn’t work, they always had him.</p>
<p>At least the water was warm to the touch. After pulling off his shoes and socks and tying his hair back, Axl climbed right into the shallow pond, being careful not to accidentally squish anything as he knelt down and sat in it.</p>
<p>The downside of the warmth, was that it felt gross and weird as it started soaking his jeans. The sand settling made his ankles itch, but he didn’t risk reaching down to scratch and have it kick up the sand even more- and, more importantly, scare away the mer that he was now sharing a pool with.</p>
<p>“I can do this all day, buddy.” Axl took out another shrimp and placed it on his knee, before letting his arms rest and his body go still.</p>
<p>The plants nearby swayed, but he wasn’t sure if it was from the ray or his own movement. He merely watched, only the eyes moving to glance across the row of green.</p>
<p>The room was near-silent for what felt like an eternity. Axl was half-convinced he was imagining things when the plants stirred again, only to be confirmed by the sight of a dark hand nervously pushing a leaf away.</p>
<p>It was tiny. Axl didn’t realize just how much so until he little ray was right in front of him. From a glance, it was a little bit smaller than a human baby. He could have easily carried it in two hands, probably even one if he was careful. It was all smooth and soft-looking, a dark upper body and brown ray-skin. Pure white hair managed to hide most of its face, though Axl could make out a set of bright blue eyes peering out through it.</p>
<p>“That’s right. Come on over.” He still refused to move, at the risk of spooking it. Gradually, the ray flapped his little fins and drifted closer, letting Axl get a better look. What he’d thought were white band markings at first was actually a waterproof bandage wrapped around the human torso, one end of it loose and trailing behind.</p>
<p>“…They really did a number on you, huh?” No wonder they guy was so shy. With how small the mer was and how big the bandage was, he could only imagine how big the wound was that was hidden out of sight. The last few hours must have been absolutely terrifying for something so little.</p>
<p>Those big blue eyes looked up at him, taking in the sight of something giant and unknown that could have attacked him at no provocation. All Axl could do was look as harmless and peaceful as possible.</p>
<p>“C’mere, lil’ guy. I ain’t gonna hurt ya.”</p>
<p>He knew the ray probably had no idea what he was saying. Even without that, though, he seemed to be doing an adequate job. A pair of little hands reached out to help push the rest of the mer’s body up his leg, head just barely remaining under the surface as he finally got a bite of shrimp.</p>
<p>“There we go!” The little ray paused at the vibration, but went back to eating. Evidently, it hadn’t eaten anything in a while. The shrimp was torn through with ease.</p>
<p>Axl reached for another. “I guess you are hungry. Plenty more where that came from-”</p>
<p>When he turned back, the ray was gone. With a bit of searching, he realized that he was by the plants again, not quite out of sight but not out in the open.</p>
<p>“Hey, what’s the deal with that? You don’t gotta run.” He put the shrimp down in the same spot and patted his leg. “Come on. I know you’re not full from just one.”</p>
<p>The ray came back far faster the second time, only sparing a brief look of caution before chowing down. “Pfft. I figured. You’re a little glutton, just like the rest of them.”</p>
<p>The more he ate, the more it seemed like the ray was getting used to him. Axl found that he could move a little and talk without frightening him. At one point, a single finger reached down to give the mer a pat on the head. He flinched away, but just as quickly returned to eating, letting Axl stroke his hair with a few fingers, eventually trailing down to offer a light scritch to the chin, which earned him a little mellow chirp.</p>
<p>“See? It ain’t so bad here. We’ll take good care of ya. Don’t have to worry about anything…” He trailed off, gently petting the smooth ray fins. “That’s right, you don’t have a name yet, do ya? Well, guess it’s my job now…</p>
<p>Sure as hell ain’t gonna name you ‘ray,’ that’s a shit name. Bloody…I don’t know much about rays…you’re poisonous, right? Is ‘Poison’ a good name? Nah, I always get it wrong. Not poisonous…ven- Venomous? Venom? That ain’t half-bad…”</p>
<p>The ray paid him no mind, and simply finished off another shrimp. Axl moved to retrieve another, but instead of waiting eagerly for more like he had been doing, the mer curled up on the man’s leg, resting his head on his arms.</p>
<p>“Well…I guess ‘Venom’ doesn’t exactly suit a lil’ cutie like you. You’re like a little baby pancake.” Axl placed a hand on the ray’s back as he started nodding off in his lap. “But I guess it’ll do. At least until I think of something better.”</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>